Fewer children are exiting the public school system for homeschooling than during the early years of the pandemic, although the state of Connecticut doesn’t know exactly how many children were never enrolled at all.
While the state of Connecticut suggests “that homeschooling parents complete the Intent to Homeschool form for each child annually and submit it to the Superintendent’s office for signature”, the form is not mandatory.
In the past three school years, the rate of children exiting the public school system to homeschooling has been less than 0.5% annually of all students in Connecticut public schools, according to a recent report by the Connecticut Department of Education. About 22% of these had been identified for special education prior to their exit, according to the report.
The rate of children transferring to homeschooling has had a small decline, from 0.4% in the 2021-2022 school year to 0.3% in school years 2022-2023 and 2023-2024. According to the 2025 report, 1,857 children were homeschooled across the state of Connecticut in the 2023-2024 school year.
The numbers of children who transferred to homeschooling do not include children who were never enrolled in public schools.
The optional “Intent to Homeschool” form is sent to school districts. Some parents notify their district that they are continuing homeschooling from the previous year, or that they have children who were never enrolled in school in the first place. For example, the Connecticut Department of Education reported that in Bridgeport, 56 children exited from public schools in the 2023-2024 school year. Bridgeport Public Schools told the CT Mirror they knew of 90 children who were homeschooled that year, which includes children whose parents submitted the Intent to Homeschool form.
The CT mirror contacted 10 of the state’s biggest school districts as well as some in the Greater Hartford area. Of the districts that provided five years’ worth of data, three reported slight decreases in the number of homeschooled children in 2024-2025 compared to 2020-2021, while two reported that homeschooling remained steady. Their data include children who may have unenrolled and reenrolled.
School districts do not have a way of accounting for children who were never in the system.
“There may be more students who live in the Norwalk community who are homeschooled, but we cannot track them unless they entered our district at some point,” according to an email from Norwalk Public Schools.
According to the 2024 Household Pulse Survey data, a U.S. Census survey conducted across nine two-week cycles in 2024, the actual number of homeschoolers may be higher. The survey estimated that 3% of Connecticut adults living with K-12 children who reported their school enrollment type are homeschooling. There were also many adults surveyed who did not report their children’s enrollment type.
According to the Household Pulse Survey’s 2023-2024 data, 6% of children nationally are homeschooled. Connecticut is one of 30 states that does not collect or report homeschool participation data.
According to the CT Homeschool Network, “CHN has grown over the decades to around 25,000 CT families,” but this number also includes families who are not currently homeschooling their children.
Last week, dozens of homeschool parents rallied at the capitol to protest possible homeschool regulations even though no bill was introduced on the topic.